The present disclosure relates generally to gaming machines and to methods for playing wagering games, and more particularly, to a gaming machine and a gaming system using fantasy sports as the basis for scoring in its games.
Gaming machines, such as slot machines and video poker machines, have been an important segment of the gaming industry for many years. Given that slot machines and video poker machines are well known by the gaming consumers, manufacturers and operators of these machines have attempted to make constant enhancements to attract and retain players. These enhancements typically involve slight changes to the wagering, probabilities or bonuses that might help make a game stand out among competitors. However, particularly in the case of video poker machines, but with slot machines as well, there is a limit to how much an operator or manufacturer can change the game to make it distinctive. In the case of video poker, the operator or manufacturer is limited by the standard poker deck of 52 cards, perhaps augmented by a joker or a wild card of some sort.
In addition, in recent years electronic gaming tables have become a growing segment in the casino industry. And with this newer technology comes the need to create multi-user entertainment options that will attract new users.
Fantasy sports games have become increasingly popular over the last few years. These games comprise contests that allow participants to select one or more real-life players to form a “fantasy” team. The statistics generated by those real-life players in real sporting events translates to points scored for the fantasy sports participant's team in the game. According to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association, nearly 60 million people in the US and Canada participated in some form of fantasy sports game in 2017. More recently Daily Fantasy Sports, a more accelerated version of fantasy sports games, wherein a user might hold a team for a week or even just one day, rather than over the course of a sports season, have become much more popular. Fantasy sports games and particularly the faster-paced version, Daily Fantasy Sports, involve wagering by the participants. Despite the popularity of these games and the creation of newer, faster-paced games, users are still dependent on the real-time results from the sporting events to which their particular fantasy team is drawn from. So users have to wait often a day or a week before they can play a new game. In addition, some games can't begin until a sufficient number of users have joined, so in some cases users might wait to play a game only to be denied because there was not a sufficient number of users for the game to proceed.
There is a need to provide people who are interested in fantasy sports games the ability to play the games when they would like to, without waiting for the sporting event to occur or other users to join a game pool. There is a need to offer users exciting new sports-related games with fast-paced action and interesting choices and payouts, and for users seeking group play, there is a need for multi-user fantasy sports games.
As for the manufacturers and operators, there is a continuing need to develop new games and improved gaming enhancements that attract frequent play through improved entertainment value to the player. For example, in the case of a casino, its profits rely upon consumers visiting the casino and gambling or otherwise spending money in the casino. It can increase its profits by encouraging consumers to remain in the casino using the gaming devices and by finding ways to encourage the consumer to return to the casino to use the gaming devices again.
Given the familiarity with and affinity for fantasy sports among game players, bringing those elements to card-based gaming devices can enhance the entertainment value of those games for users and provide manufacturers and operators a new addition to the gaming machine segment.
Using a gaming machine, historical sports statistics, and a familiar poker-style layout provides users with an easy and efficient way to enjoy the excitement of fantasy sports and the feel of video poker. However, by using a specially-designed deck, different from a typical poker deck, games may have a wide array of new gameplay possibilities and strategies, adding interest and excitement. Users can play at their own pace, receiving an immediate outcome rather than waiting for scores to be posted from real-time events. Bonuses and jackpots for special player outcomes provide the excitement of an even bigger potential payout. Operators can attract new users with sports-themed games and can adjust payouts to fit their needs rather than being tied to the probabilities inherent in a standard 52-card poker deck.
It should be noted that throughout the following discussion, to avoid confusion, the person or persons playing the game will be referred to as “user” or “users” and the athlete, sports figure, celebrity, or other type of individual or group represented within the card game will be referred to as “player” or “players”. For example: “the user is dealt a card with the player, Tom Brady, displayed on the card.” Game manufacturers, game designers, game technicians, casino owners, casino operators, and other personnel involved in building, maintaining and/or updating gaming machines will be referred to as “operators”.
Various embodiments of the present disclosure involve a gaming system and method providing a card game wherein the playing cards in the deck represent real-world sports players. Each card in the deck represents a player and includes pre-determined scores in a set, based on a playing season or some other collection of games or matches. The scoring is similar to scoring used for fantasy sports games, where points are awarded to a player based on events in a game. The cards also include other player-related information, such as a player rank or the year or season that the scores represent. This information can be used to determine combinations among the cards.
In various embodiments, for play of a multi-user card game, the gaming system randomly selects and deals some number of cards to each user from the virtual deck of cards. In some embodiments, each user is dealt a hand of cards and then is allowed to discard some or all of those cards. The game system randomly selects replacement cards for any that the user may have discarded. After the replacement cards, if any, have been dealt, the gaming system randomly selects a score for each card from among that card's pre-determined scores.
In some embodiments, the gaming system determines whether the displayed hand of cards includes a total score that falls within the scores designated to be a winning outcome. It also determines if an individual player's score falls within the individual scores designated to be a winning outcome. The gaming system also determines if any card combinations correspond with those determined to be winning outcomes. If the hand is determined to match a winning outcome, the player receives an award amount. In addition, in certain embodiments other scoring measures are used, such as special player scores or matching of player information. In some embodiments, a scoring table or pay table is used to determine the winner of the game.
In some embodiments, the user can play against a computer-controlled dealer. In certain other embodiments the user can play against a computer-controlled opponent. In some embodiments multiple-users participate in a game. In some embodiments, the gaming system determines which participant, whether user or computer-controlled participant, had the highest score or winning score and if it is a user, that user wins the total amount wagered for that game. In some embodiments, a scoring table or pay table is used to determine the amount of money or credits a user receives for winning the game.
In some embodiments users are dealt some number of cards that are a subset of the number of the cards needed to complete a full hand. These are often referred to as “hole” cards. The gaming system then randomly selects and deals some number of community cards, which can be played as part of any user's hand. Users can wager in the rounds between the dealing of each set of community cards or of a single additional community card. In certain embodiments, as the community cards are dealt, the gaming system randomly selects and displays a score for each the users' hole cards from among that card's pre-determined scores. And as more community cards are dealt, the gaming system randomly selects a score for the previously dealt community cards, so users gain more information about their hand as the game progresses.
Once the pre-determined number of hole cards and community cards have been dealt and those cards scores displayed, the scores are tabulated to calculate a total score. The gaming system determines which user had the highest score and that user wins the total amount wagered for that game. In addition, in certain embodiments other scoring measures are used, such as special player scores, matching of player information, or collecting the most or a certain combination of player positions in a hand. In some embodiments, a scoring table or pay table is used to determine the winner of the game.
Some embodiments of the present disclosure involve a process of creating the virtual playing card decks for the aforementioned games. Given that the number of real-world players available to populate a deck far exceeds the number players required to make a viable playing deck, a method is provided to refine the available player set into the optimum number and configuration desired by operators
In various embodiments of the disclosure, a computer readable storage medium is encoded with instructions for directing a gaming device to perform the above method.